A major hospice fundraiser is set to take place in North Wales in support of vital local services.
The black tie Pearl Ball on Saturday, June 6, will raise money for St Kentigern’s Hospice in St Asaph, which supports patients and families from across the region.
The event will be held at Pentre Mawr Country House in Llandyrnog and is being organised by the hospice charity’s Denbigh Support Group as part of continuing efforts to fund patient care.
Guests at the fundraiser will enjoy an evening of entertainment, dining and fundraising, with organisers hoping the event will generate vital support for the hospice’s work in the community.
Sue Last, a qualified nurse who spent 15 years as lay chaplain at the Hospice, is a member of the Denbigh Support Group and her husband, the late Professor John Last, was one of the many helped by St Kentigern’s.
She said: “The Denbigh Support Group has many members but at its core are six or seven of us ladies who organise events like this which is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Hospice which took place last year.
“Many of us have a personal link to the Hospice and that’s what keeps us going because we know how much it means to people and how important it is to support it in times when it’s running costs are £4.6 million a year and only 26 per cent of that is funding – the rest we have to raise ourselves.
“The Hospice plays such a big part in the life of the community. I was a district nurse for years and you build up a one-to-one relationship with people and that’s the same at the Hospice.
“John had dementia and received support from the Admiral Nurse, a dementia specialist, who’s based at the hospice and is the only one in North Wales.”
One of her colleagues in the Support Group, Sue Ellis-Roberts, from Trefnant, whose husband died of cancer at the hospice, said: “There is a lot more to this wonderful place than dying – it’s about dying well.
“The people here are special. It’s a one-way ticket but they offer so much and so many services, from aromatherapy to counselling, music and crafts.
“There are 12 beds but in the last year 220 people have been admitted and over 350 people have received outpatient services and those extend to their families as well.”
Royal composer Paul Mealor, the artistic director of the North Wales International Music Festival in St Asaph, will be the master of ceremonies on the night.
He said: “I have a real connection to the Hospice. I was born in H M Stanley Hospital now the home of the Hospice and I was a choirboy at the Cathedral and I live here in St Asaph.
“Anyone local knows what a big part the Hospice plays in the life of the community and the fantastic range of services which it provides including its lovely café which raises funds for the hospice.”
The black tie event is at Pentre Mawr Country House, Llandyrnog, who have provided the venue free of charge, and tickets are £80 each to include entertainment by Ron Sanders, a barefoot singer from the Wirral, and a four-course meal by award-winning Peninsula Catering.
For more information about the event go to https://stkentigernhospice.org.uk/event/black-tie-gala/ and for more on the work of the Hospice to https://stkentigernhospice.org.uk/
